Final workday!

Today was the final workday for ED 421. I was fantastic to have the time to focus on our final lesson, and develop it thoroughly. I chose to present my final in a power-point format and it turned out great (in my opinion) It was challenging to try to incorporate technology use that would be directed for first, second, and third graders. I focused my final on the concept of recycling. I had students view my power-point as a starter, then watch a few short Youtube videos on recycling. I then had them color and form books related to recycling that you as a teacher would download off a website. I also had students draw their own concepts of recycling, and promotion and use word to type up a slogan so that it can be posted in the hallways. The final portion of the lesson had student's working through an interactive game website that involved the concepts of recycling in which we have discussed.
It was really fun to create this informal lesson, and play around with how I could incorporate technology into a primary classroom.

Ethiopia Website

I had my first attempt at creating a website over the past few weeks. It did not go without its challenges, but I really like my final product. I picked a broad topic, that I could spend weeks or months developing a website for. Overall though I feel my website turned out really nice. I am excited to share it with my friends and family... as well as my peers for the final.
I had a hard time connecting my links, and through some additional help I made them work. I tried to organize my mess into additional folders which ended up voiding my original links... who would have thought!! It worked out in the end though, and it looks great!
I think that I would totally use the tools I learned through creating a website in my own classroom. I would like to create a "class page" that I can update yearly for my parents and students to look on. It was exciting to learn how the whole process works!

Podcast...

This week we completed our podcast, using garage band. To be honest I had a bit of a technological breakdown. Not on my computer's part, but my own. I couldn't decided what to complete my podcast on, or how to really work my way through the program. Eventually I decided to just relax, and play around with the program until I could figure it out. I presented a podcast for young children on hand washing, and the steps necessary.
I imagine that if I played around with it more I could become more professional in my final product, but it was really challenging for me the first time around. I made it through, and learned more than I had anticipated.